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In words of Ross “Play is nature’s own method of education of children”. Play is free and spontaneous. School work can, therefore, be so organised that it takes the shape of play. The school curriculum, the methods of instruction and the school discipline can be so devised that the child finds absorbing interest in the school work.
Knowledge should be communicated in an interesting manner. Nothing should be forced upon the child. Not even should any game be forced upon the child, as then it becomes work.
What is Play-Way?
By play-way, we mean the spirit of play in all educational instruction. It emphasises the spirit of freedom, spontaneity and enjoyment introduced in all school work. As Ross says, “It sums up in a word the modern spirit in education”.
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Play-way lays emphasis on the child, rather than on the subject-matter. Play-way spirit is the ‘paidocentric’ tendency.
Forms of Play-Way:
Play-way in education can take numerous forms, depending upon the types of activities that are introduced:
(i) Kindergarten Method is the earliest play-way method, devised by Froebel. Froebel regarded the school as the garden and the teacher as the gardener who carefully tends the little human plants and helps them to grow beautifully. He introduced playful objects called ‘gifts’, and emphasised chorus singing. His method is most popular in nursery schools.
(ii) Montessori Method is also based on psychological considerations, and it includes a number of play-activities for sensory training and learning 3 Rs. Montessori’s didactic apparatus’ provides playful exercise for pre-school children.
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(iii) Dalton Plan is a playful method teaching for the elder children who can work independently at their own will, in a spirit of play. The class-room is regarded as a laboratory for the various subjects, and the child is free to work at his own rate of learning.
(iv) Project Method devised by John Dewey, provides opportunities to the child to take up problems and solve those in a natural setting. The teacher creates real life situations wherein the child is himself motivated to discover in a playful spirit.
(v) Heuristic Method of Armstrong, seeks to put the pupil in a position of original discoverer, learning new facts in a spirit of play.
(vi) Correlation Method of Mahatma Gandhi is an Indian version of Project Method, and is characterised by the interest of the child in a particular activity, which gives rise to manifold knowledge. As the child is busy in an activity, he learns incidentally.
(vii) Self-Government is an adaptation of the play-way spirit in education. The elections take place in a playful manner, and the entire working of the school executive is a playful act.
(viii) Scouting and Girl-Guiding affords numerous playful activities like camp-fire, spooring, celebrating jamboree and scout rally.
(ix) Story-telling is the application of play-way in the teaching of history and literature.
(x) Intellectual games like word-building, braino, mechano and trade make the learning of new material easy and interesting.
(xi) Hobbies, like collection of stamps, flowers, leaves and fossils, art, painting, music and scientific hobbies are a source of both pleasure and profit.
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(xii) Dramatisation and Chorus singing are cathartic in action. These have both emotional and therapeutic value.
(xiii) Audio-visual aids like movie, tape-record, radio and television are now-a-days utilised for educational purposes, simply because the child takes attending to these in spirit of play.
(xiv) Curricular Activities of all types should be introduced in the school in a spirit of play.
Criticism against Play-Way:
Some people criticise play-way on the ground that it leads to soft-psychology. It encourages non-serious attitude, inactivity and love for ease. We have to prepare the child of the serious business of life, where he has to come across numerous problems at every step. Life is not a bed of roses. Overprotected and fondled children can never succeed in life. The serious activities of educator can be carried only in the most serious way.
The fear on the part of the critics is baseless. When we introduce play- way in education, we are not going to change or overlook the aims of education. We are only changing the mode of carrying on the activity. We simply take the advantage of the knowledge of child psychology, and try to make the practice of education most acceptable to the child, so that we can win his wholehearted cooperation.
Unless the child is willing to accept the learning activities that we introduce, the result will be waste. No fear of the rod and frown of the teacher can make the child to learn. No imposition of the text-books and the curriculum can get the desired result. “You may take a horse to water but cannot make him drink.”
By introducing play-way, we are working along the natural tendencies of the child so that he derives both enjoyment and profit. All the play-way methods are designed for this end. Hence, play-way does not lead to soft psychology.